Shift Your Perspective & Change What’s Possible for Your Life

Is your latest challenge an obstacle or an opportunity? You get to choose.

To demonstrate this concept, I want to use a couple of metaphors and tell a story. You ready? Here we go.

“Why do I have to learn math?”

Have you ever heard a child, maybe your own, or maybe you when you were a kid, ask this question?

The question is usually accompanied by a wrinkled nose and an irritated expression. It may even come with hands in the air or a little foot stomping. Additional elements may include: an eye roll, pulling of the hair, heavy sighs and maybe even a moan or grunt.

You get the picture. I feel sure you have either done this or know someone who has.

What I’d like you to consider that the child in this scenario is you and “learning math” can be replaced with any challenge or problem you’re facing in life.

“Whoa, wait a minute, is she saying I’m like a kid throwing a childish tantrum?”

Yes – that’s exactly what I’m saying.

Consider that you are the child.

(Laughing at yourself on a regular basis is a wonderful thing to do. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in growth and success.)

Consider that you are the child.

It shouldn’t be this way.

She shouldn’t have said that.

He should never have done that.

She ought to know better.

I ought to know better.

I shouldn’t be feeling this.

Why do I keep doing this?

Why does this keep happening to me?

Can you believe it?

This is usually what we do when a challenge comes up.

Even for those of us who consider ourselves pretty evolved, it’s a natural go-to response.

We resist what we see as negative.

We try to avoid the things that we see as painful.

Even single-celled organism do this. It’s a natural defense mechanism.

We may even take it a step further and get others to commiserate with us and validate us, which makes us feel better – at least temporarily.

We don’t even call it complaining. We call it “venting” and tell ourselves it’s OK.

I’ve asked you to consider that you are like the complaining child. LOL.

Since you’re still reading – let’s take things a step further.

What if EVERYTHING that happens to you is on purpose and it’s all for our own good?

What if it’s not happening TO you, it’s happening FOR you?

What if Life is made up of a series of obstacle courses, each with their own starting point and a finish line.

And, each time you’re leveling up, it’s time to run the gauntlet again.

Your Intuition has infinite wisdom and it knows where you want to end up – the finish line – the dream realized – the next big thing in your life to accomplish.

So, here you are, cruising right along and you come to the first obstacle.

It’s the one with the mud where you have to get down on your belly and make your way through this particular stretch, with wire over your head, so low you can’t even crawl on all fours, which would be bad enough.

This is a big moment.

What do you do?

Do you throw yourself on the ground and start sliding and wiggling your way through?

Or do you stand there and stomp your feet?

Maybe you try to figure out if there’s a way you can go around. And you go around only to find yourself facing the obstacle again, right back where you started.

When you come to it again, do you wait for some other participants to come up and see if you can get them to agree with you that this is unreasonable and you shouldn’t have to get all muddy? You have on a cute new outfit and everything! Oh, the unfairness of it all!

Meanwhile, time is a wasting.

Finally, you force yourself to just do it.

Slow going at first, but, sooner than you thought, you’re to the other side thinking, “I guess that wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be.”

Soon, you’re rolling on again, doing pretty well and you see the monkey bars ahead.

This time it’s fear that comes up.

You were never very good at doing them as a kid. Maybe you will fall, you think. Maybe others will laugh at you.

You’re getting in your head, dreading what is to come.

This time, maybe you sit down on the ground in front of the bars and you just cry for a bit.

You feel defeated before you’ve ever begun.

You already know walking around the obstacle won’t help and talking to the others about how unfair it was didn’t help you get through the mud, so you decide to just make yourself do it. If you fail, you fail.

You decide – all you can do is try.

Now that you’ve decided to actually do it, you want to try and get it over with as soon as possible. You know from when you were a kid that you need to get yourself swinging and the momentum helps carry you.

You give yourself a little pep talk and you grab your first rung.

Before you know it, you’re moving pretty fast and you can feel the back and forth of your body. Going with it helps you to get to the other side.

Whew!

Damn, that was hard, but you did it!

You’re cruising on again and you see the next obstacle – the wall you have to climb.

You were anticipating there might be more challenges ahead and so it’s not a huge surprise. You’re getting the hang of this a little bit.

You have the confidence you gained from the last two obstacles and now you’re talking to yourself a little differently.

You’re giving yourself a bit of a pep talk, even though this seems like the most formidable obstacle yet.

It sure does look intimidating, but by the time you get to it, you’ve already realized you’re just going to give it everything you have and see what happens.

You don’t even hesitate. You just start climbing. It takes a couple of tries, but you make it to the top and then take the leap to the ground on the other side.

You’re walking away thinking, “Damn, I didn’t think I could do it, but I did.”

You’re feeling proud now and there’s a spring in your step.

Whatever the next challenge is, you’re ready.

You know this is how it works. And you know you can handle anything that comes up.

You also know that complaining, delaying, denying, crying are not going to help you get through to the other side.

Can you identify with this at all?

I hope so.

I’m looking for all the ways I’m stomping my feet and how I can just dive into it instead.

While we are here, and you’re still reading, let’s take this all one step further.

What if we had a higher perspective, infinite wisdom and understanding, and we could see all the puzzle pieces that came together and why this obstacle course was specifically designed just for you and your life?

Wiggling and sliding through the mud on your belly taught you that you will be much happier if you face things head on, instead of denying and trying to avoid them. The monkey bars taught you to face your fears. It taught you about the natural flow and back and forth and the power of momentum, so now you can harness it anytime you want. The wall taught you that you can do anything, even if it looks too hard. It taught you to be your own best friend and cheer yourself on and also to pat yourself on the back and feel proud when you’re done. All three helped you let go of something that wasn’t serving you. All three gave you knowledge and confidence and skills you needed for the journey ahead.

It was all for you – the whole time.

It was a perfectly designed obstacle course for where you want to go.

We all face obstacles, all day, every day. We face little ones and big ones, easy and difficult.

What if, no matter what the challenge, we decided to view it as something that was perfectly designed for us.

Helping us every step of the way, even if we didn’t understand it in the moment.

Ask yourself:

What am I complaining about?

What am I avoiding or denying?

Can I see the gift in this situation?

Can I see a potential benefit by going through this?

What can this be teaching me?

What can I let go of?

If it were FOR me, what could be the reason?

Changing how we look at things, shifting our perspective is a powerful tool for success.

Are you willing to reframe your next obstacle and see it as an opportunity?

If so, you’re completely amazing and you have just found a huge shortcut on the path to getting whatever you want!

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About Dani Winders

Hi there, I'm Dani! I help women get out of victim mode, take responsibility for their lives and ultimately be FREE to be the person they were meant to be and live the life they were meant to live. Learn More…